NASA holds Innovative Advanced Concepts Symposium Nov. 14-15

(Nanowerk News) The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program's 2012 Fall Symposium will be held Nov. 14-15, 2012 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Hampton, Va. NIAC examines early stage concepts that may lead to advanced and innovative space technologies critical for NASA to enable missions in the next 10 to 100 years.

Panel topics during the free public symposium include propulsion and power, space debris removal, near-Earth object mitigation, humans in space and on the surface of planets, robotics and space probes, and imaging and communications.

Experts in aeronautics and advanced technologies will give keynote presentations and discuss the latest news about NIAC's progress and plans. Poster sessions will showcase the ongoing projects of current NIAC fellows.

Keynote speakers include NASA's chief technologist, Mason Peck, and professor Penny Boston of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro. Boston will discuss "What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this? Looking for life in all the wrong places, from caves to Mars and beyond" at 10:45 a.m. EST Wednesday, Nov. 14. Peck will discuss "Technology and the Future" at 8 a.m., Thursday, Nov. 15.

Journalists registering to attend the symposium should list their news organization under "affiliation." Reporters seeking interviews with NASA or other symposium participants should contact Kathy Barnstorff at [email protected] or 757-864-9886.

NIAC is part of NASA's Space Technology Program, which is innovating, developing, testing, and flying technology for use in NASA's future missions and the greater aerospace community.